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Vande Mataram and the 2026 Amendment: From voluntary honour to penal coercion

While the slogan Vande Mataram galvanised millions during India’s struggle for liberation from the clutches of colonial rule, this essay demonstrates that the 2026 Amendment –that the BJP has orchestrated--does not represent historical continuity, but rather a contemporary majoritarian redefinition of a complex national symbol.

A String of Departures from the ICC is ringing Alarm Bell

Three African states have pulled out of the ICC...

Was Sardar Patel Anti-Muslim?

Sardar Patel and Indian MuslimsOctober 31, 2016 is the...

Syama Prasad Mookerjee: How `selfless’ was this `patriot’?

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) had its...

Myanmar Ethnic Cleansing: Report claims final Stage of Genocide of Rohingya Muslims

While Myanmar prepares for internationally backed national election next...

Clash Between Two Notions of Purity: India’s Partition

Some Summations from India’s Partition StoryMy engagement with partition...

No, Bob Dylan isn’t the first lyricist to win the Nobel

There’s been a great deal of excitement over Bob...

What Ambedkar’s Anti-caste Struggle shared with the US Civil Rights Movement

 On this day 60 years ago, Dr BR Ambedkar,...

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Reporter attacked on DU Campus, DUJ condemns assault

The body of journalists has condemned the attack on a female reporter as also the fact that the police remained ‘mute spectators’

Outside the World, Outside the Page: Why We Are More Receptive to Dalit Suffering than Dalit Anger

The author, a student in Bengaluru, asks why Dalit suffering is more readily received than Dalit anger in literature, cinema and public life. Is it because sorrow allows readers and viewers to remain sympathetic observers, while anger and refusal can challenge that comfortable distance?

Prioritise ecological security of country over “false narrative” of “highway development”: CCG to Govt & Courts

Former bureaucrats protest the “steady lowering of statutory safeguards for protecting India’s Environment and Forests” in an open letter to the government; both government and the judiciary need to prioritise the ecological security of our country and the health and life of its citizens over the false narrative of more roads, more buildings, more townships, more mines, more industries, more destruction of the natural world that is currently seen as progress.

Sit Where We Stand: The segregated back rooms for sanitation staff in urban spaces

The absence of dignified break rooms for sanitation staff in urban spaces is a visible residue of caste-exclusionary practices that have become normalised. Women who work here—whether in universities or elsewhere—are often left with no option but to rest on bathroom floors.

After some dithering, Odisha government rejects premature release of Graham Staines murder convict Dara Singh

Odisha Chief Minister, Mohan Charan Majhi, had in 2022, when he was a BJP legislator supported demands for Dara Singh’s early release, a demand vocalised by Sudarshan TV’s editor, Suresh Chavhanke